The majority of today's carry-all type of bag e.g. back packs, book bags or small hand luggage type bags, are soft-sided and normally made from a durable fabric such as nylon, cotton, denim or the like. The fabrics, while they may be water resistant, they are not waterproof and thus placing a wet umbrella against a wall of the body of the bag can result in the contents in the bag getting damp or wet. This can be very harmful to student's books or detrimental to a hiker expecting a change of dry clothing being carried in the bag or damaging to important paper documents being carried to or from work.
It is known to have a back pack type of bag with an umbrella holding means and by of example reference may be hand to U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,134 issued Apr. 2, 1991 to T. P. Barry.
Other references known to applicant disclosing some means for holding a collapsed umbrella on a hand carry type of bag are as follows:
U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 451,843 issued May 5, 1891 to G. M. Powell PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 1,094,207 issued Apr. 21, 1914 to C. M. Hollingsworth PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 2,369,943 issued Feb. 20, 1945 to A. M. Broudy PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,271 issued Mar. 27, 1990 to J. B. Stanley PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,644 issued Jan. 28, 1992 to C. B. Collins
Not any of the forgoing references are concerned with, nor do they disclose in any form whatsoever, water management for damp or wet umbrellas returned to a umbrella retaining means on a hand or back pack carry all type of bag.
Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,743 issued Nov. 14, 1995 to M Sheu et al is a sheathing device for receiving a wet umbrella. The device includes a flexible tubular member having removable end caps and wherein the water management comprises an orifice in one of the end caps and a removable plug in the orifice for releasing any water that has collected inside the sheath.
Other references considered to be of minor interest in this matter are U.S. Pat. No. 5,503,476 issued Apr. 2, 1996 to S Hamdan, which discloses a laundry carry bag with multiple compartments and side patch pockets with zipper or hook and loop closures and U.S. Pat No. 4,301 issued Nov. 24, 1981 to S. Plough et al which discloses a peace officer's equipment bag with an elastic defining consecutive convolutions on the side of the bag for holding shotgun shells.